The point isn't her strength or beauty - Edit 1
Before modification by darius_sedai at 03/06/2010 03:29:22 PM
Well... third names were awarded for service to society.
Given her raw, undisguised ambition, it's not so surprising Lanfear never got a third name. She must have been way too busy using her assets to serve Mierin Aronaille to do any truly remarquable service as an Aes Sedai, despite her potential.
Bel Medar was similar, but more of a clever hypocrite. It seems he understood that to get to the top of the system, he had to give all the appearances of great service, even though in the end he did it all out of personal ambition rather than a genuine desire to serve society.
Given her raw, undisguised ambition, it's not so surprising Lanfear never got a third name. She must have been way too busy using her assets to serve Mierin Aronaille to do any truly remarquable service as an Aes Sedai, despite her potential.
Bel Medar was similar, but more of a clever hypocrite. It seems he understood that to get to the top of the system, he had to give all the appearances of great service, even though in the end he did it all out of personal ambition rather than a genuine desire to serve society.
Yes, my point being that she should have been able to easily manage the task if she had EVER bothered to make the effort involved. I'm convinced other AS would have looked down on someone who should have easily been able to earn that 3rd name, but didn't have the strength of character necessary to achieve it. If Tel Janin Aellinsar could earn it as was what amounts to a professional athlete and Nemene Damendar Boann could fake it well enough to fool the system into not seeing her true nature, Mierin Aronaille should have had no problem.
I'd go so far as to say that even people who had not earned the 3rd name would have looked at her as an anomaly since it should have been something easily within her. To your point Barid Bel Medar, and Tel Janin Aellinsar for that matter, obviously saw the benefits of going through the process... Lanfear wasn't even aware enough to have figured out that it was a necessary (critical even) step for her to make if she truly wanted power/fame. But then I don't think Lanfear really wanted anything if she had to actually earn it ... like a child she expected things to be handed to her.
As I said in another post, we don't know how third names were earned. I doubt beauty and OP strength had anything to do with anything, unless the council were all horny males.
I think third names were very rare and reserved for the highest levels of service. The FS with third names were all world renowned. If the third name was commonplace in most people who served society then Mierin was indeed a massive loser. If however it was a rare thing, then at worst, she's as useless as 99% of the population.
I also don't think that the FS duped society into awarding them. The third name was for service to society. Semirhage could have received it for all her brilliant Healing, even though she was a nasty piece of work. Same for Be'lal and Graendal and Ishamael.
I agree that very few actually earned the 3rd name. The point is that Lanfear's strength, beauty and obvious intelligence should have made her a no-brainer for earning it at some point. Someone who was once linked to LTT and was working in cutting edge research? All the pieces were right in front of her and instead of figuring out what the others who would later be FS did she figure it out!
Also note that all the other "top 6" had earned the 3rd name. The only 3rd namer IIRC who wasn't top 6 was Be'lal. It says something about Lanfear that she could rise into the elite realms of the FS, but not in the world prior.